Albany mayoral candidates face off

Ellis, Sheehan outline views on downtown, tax payments, public safety

By Jordan Carleo-Evangelist

Updated 9:25 am, Thursday, August 29, 2013

Photo: Michael P. Farrell

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Democratic candidates for Albany mayor Corey Ellis and Kathy Sheehan take part in a debate sponsored by the NAACP and League of Women Voters at the First Unitarian Church on Wednesday Aug. 28, 2013 in Albany, N.Y. (Michael P. Farrell/Times Union) less

Democratic candidates for Albany mayor Corey Ellis and Kathy Sheehan take part in a debate sponsored by the NAACP and League of Women Voters at the First Unitarian Church on Wednesday Aug. 28, 2013 in Albany, ... more

Photo: Michael P. Farrell

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Democratic city treasurer candidates Gary Domalewicz and Darius Shahinfar take part in a debate sponsored by the NAACP and League of Women Voters at the First Unitarian Church on Wednesday Aug. 28, 2013 in Albany, N.Y. (Michael P. Farrell/Times Union) less

Democratic city treasurer candidates Gary Domalewicz and Darius Shahinfar take part in a debate sponsored by the NAACP and League of Women Voters at the First Unitarian Church on Wednesday Aug. 28, 2013 in ... more

Photo: Michael P. Farrell

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Albany Mayoral Candidate Corey Ellis talks about his plans for a state-of-the-art aquarium Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, during a press conference in Albany, N.Y. Ellis believes that building an aquarium would improve the economy in downtown Albany. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union) less

Albany Mayoral Candidate Corey Ellis talks about his plans for a state-of-the-art aquarium Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, during a press conference in Albany, N.Y. Ellis believes that building an aquarium would ... more

Photo: Lori Van Buren

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Albany mayoral candidate Kathy Sheehan speaks after accepting the endorsement of the Civil Service Employee Federation union (CSEA) and AFSCME Local 1961, Council 66, Tuesday morning, Aug. 20, 2013, during an announcement outside City Hall in Albany, N.Y. Sheehan is the Albany City Treasurer. She faces former Councilman Corey Ellis in a Democratic mayoral primary in September. ( Will Waldron/Times Union) less

Albany mayoral candidate Kathy Sheehan speaks after accepting the endorsement of the Civil Service Employee Federation union (CSEA) and AFSCME Local 1961, Council 66, Tuesday morning, Aug. 20, 2013, during an ... more

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Albany mayoral candidates face off

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Albany

Corey Ellis cast himself as a catalyst for change while Kathy Sheehan touted her record tackling complex problems in the treasurer's office as the two Democratic hopefuls met on stage Wednesday with less than two weeks left before the primary that could effectively decide the city's first new mayor in two decades.

Ellis, 42, a former councilman from Arbor Hill, credited his 2009 mayoral run with pushing incumbent Democratic Mayor Jerry Jennings to crack down on vacant buildings, open the door to a more community-oriented style of policing and bring public access television back to the city.

But Sheehan, 49, a former corporate attorney elected in 2009, argued that over her four years as the city's chief fiscal officer she has built just such a record.

While Ellis took credit for leading the charge on the Common Council's unprecedented 2009 investigation into a parking ticket scandal before Sheehan took office, Sheehan said it was under her watch that the city upgraded to a more efficient computer system that helps combat fraud and has boosted parking ticket revenue.

Sheehan said she also lobbied Jennings' administration to hire a chief information officer to improve the city's other hopelessly outdated computer systems, which she said have rendered it impossible for even high-paid professional consultants to properly advise the city on how it can run more efficiently and save taxpayers money. Jennings filled that post in May.

"We are trying to operate our city like somebody trying to build a building without an architect," Sheehan said.

On the question of revitalizing downtown, the two candidates split on the proposal by Omni Development that the state authority charged with building a downtown convention center also spearhead the construction of an aquarium on land the authority owns off Broadway.

Ellis redoubled his support for the concept, which he said would bring both jobs and money to city coffers by transforming downtown into a regional attraction.

"We need Albany to be a destination for people," Ellis said.

But Sheehan rejected the idea that the process of deciding how to use that land — some four acres compiled with about $10 million in state money — ought to start with a specific answer like an aquarium.

"Rather than telling the residents of our city what they need, I want to start by asking the residents what they want," she said.

Ellis again backed the idea of turning to the city's many nonprofit, tax-exempt institutions, such as colleges and hospitals, to begin making payments in lieu of taxes to help the city pay for the vital services the organizations use. He suggested those payment plans would last between three and five years and help get the city on a more stable fiscal ground.

"We need them to be financial partners, " he said.

Sheehan, who has said the city would be better off forging meaningful partnerships rather than settling for token payments, countered that there might be other ways to partner with those groups, such as appealing to one or more of the hospitals to aid the fire department in buying emergency medical supplies.

When it came to public safety, Ellis argued that increasing "equal economic opportunity" is a key component of making the streets safer by showing the city's youth that there is a future for them beyond violence.

"Create this economic opportunity for people, then our children won't have to look for the next gun or the next drug sale," he said.

Sheehan, meanwhile, praised the work of the SNUG anti-violence program and said she lobbied lawmakers to keep it running with city money when the state broke its initial promise to fund it for several years.

But she also insisted that an important element of public safety is ensuring that all areas of the city have equal access to city resources, preventing blight that also fuels crime.

"It's unacceptable to me that any neighborhood in the city is allowed to look the way that some of our neighborhoods have been allowed to decay," she said.

With Democratic voters in the city vastly outnumbering Republicans and independents, the Sept. 10 primary could effectively decide the race. Jennings decided not to seek re-election to a sixth term this year.